BATON ROUGE -- A Senate panel narrowly rejected a measure Wednesday that would have pushed back the start of the voting day by one hour.

File photoLouisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler

House Bill 209 had more success than previous efforts to shorten the voting day, making it through the House. But in the end, Senators kept the bill in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee by a 4-4 vote.

Secretary of State Tom Schedler sought the change, arguing that existing voting hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., the second-longest in the nation, place an undue burden on poll workers

"I don't think any of the statistics or any of the logic would lend to itself to why you shouldn't do this," Schedler said, noting that early and absentee voting give ample opportunity for voters to cast a ballot.

Unlike previous years, the bill would only have trimmed the first hour of the voting day instead of cutting both the first and last hour. Past years had seen efforts to reduce the length of the election day fail based on partisan battles over which party would be more seriously impacted.

Schedler said he focused on the first hour, which represents about 2 percent of the votes cast, because those who turn out earliest tend to be the most reliable voters. Those who cast their ballots at that time would turn out whenever the polls opened, he said.

"If I thought for one moment I was preventing anyone from voting, even one, I wouldn't propose this bill," Schedler said.

But labor groups opposed the change, arguing it would hurt workers with long shifts and firefighters who might have to be at work through the entirety of a shortened election day.

Chad Major, president of the Professional Firefighter's Association of Louisiana, said the bill would make it hard or impossible for firefighters whose 24-hour shifts start early in the morning to get to the polls and said early voting is no substitute for going to the polls on election day.

"It would negate the folks that I represent's right to vote on days they were working shifts," Major said.

Louisiana AFL-CIO President Louis Reine said the state should not be trying to reduce voting hours at all.

"It's something we ought to be proud of that we give the greatest opportunity to our citizens on election day," Reine said.

Jeff Adelson can be reached at jadelson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5207.